Synopsis: The Essenes were a Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE -- and best known today in relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

What's not so well known is that the Essenians, like the Ancient Egyptians, had mastered the art of the energetic therapies. After being hidden for thousands of years, their knowledge is coming back today in response to our society's profound need to once again find deep roots and dimensions.

"The Great Book of Essenian and Egyptian Therapies" is the produce of many years of research and practice, the result of which is the most complete set of Essenian techniques and perceptions of the human being subtle anatomy ever collected. The authors, Daniel Meurois and his wife, Marie Johanne Croteau, intend the book as an especially well illustrated, clear and precise teaching tool.

All those who are interested in health and the harmonious balance of the being will appreciate "The Great Book of Essenian and Egyptian Therapies" because of its exciting content and training in terms of both the horizons it opens, and its practical-side, coupled with the reconciliatory philosophy that emerges. Therapists and students in energetic therapies will discover a pleasant user-friendly manual rich in working techniques and innovative elements designed to develop their practice.

Through its approach (based on the Archetypes and symbols that touch on the physical, subtle, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the being, and through its information on combining the internal development and global health of the organism) "The Great Book of Essenian and Egyptian Therapies" offers everyone new avenues of growth and harmony. More than ever, the reader as the practitioner will be brought to understand the marvelous relationship unifying human being (body, soul and spirit) with the force of Universal Life, the Divine that includes everything. www.sacredworldspublishing.com

Critique: Essential reading for all body workers looking to deepen and expand their practice, "The Great Book of Essenian and Egyptian Therapies" is an inherently fascinating and unique contribution to the growing library of alternative medicine. While unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Health/Medicine collections, it should be noted for students, academia, health care professionals, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Great Book of Essenian and Egyptian Therapies" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

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1) How does the Essenian Tradition describe the Body of Light? How does the energy field present itself in and around the body?

First, you need to know that the Essenian Tradition stems from the Esoteric Tradition. This was only transmitted orally. We can’t find any text or outlines from this field.The Essenian insiders assumed that the Body of Light was not one but multiple—namely, it was made with a number of “luminous layers,” each one being an expression of the reality of being. For them, the Body of Light in its whole was not the consequence of the material body but rather at the origin of it. If a person assimilated the Body of Light into the soul, it was said that for them, the soul preexisted the flesh body. This means that they thought of the flesh as an extension, a declension of the densest of the primal, luminous reality. They also established a very clear distinction between the body of the soul itself and its emanations—what we call today the different layers of the aura.

In this sense, according to the Essenian understanding of things, the luminous body and its radiations were carriers of the truth of being. They translated—or betrayed—the state of health of the soul. It was at this level that the Essenians endeavored to work based on the principle that all physical disorders are almost inevitably the direct consequence of dysfunctions of the soul.

2)What is the origin of this Body of Light for the Essenians? Where is it from?

For the Essenians, the Body of Light emanated from a still brighter reality, the one of the “Body of the Breath.” Nowadays, we would call it the “spirit.” They saw in it an incorruptible and androgynous principle directly from the Divine Consciousness. The Body of Light—or the soul—was considered to be the dense and sexed extension of the “Body of the Breath.” It is the luminous body that allows us the experimentation of the duality since the sexualization implies a state of separation in its movement of densification toward the flesh.

To the Essenians, the luminous body of the soul was the bridge between the Divine Breath and the material world. It was a meeting point, just like the trunk of a tree enables the roots and branches to perform their functions from bottom to top and from top to bottom. The seeds come from above and hatch below. Meanwhile, their growth expresses the meeting point between Heaven and Earth, which is the trunk of the tree. The archetypal image of a tree was constantly present in Essenian teachings, as well as in the kabbalistic tradition of the Seriphoths.

3) What were the applications? How did the Essenians use this knowledge?

This knowledge was directed toward only one goal: mastery of the health of the soul. The Essenian therapies were holistic before the word existed. They considered the global reality of the human being—namely, the multitude of his or her declensions of levels of consciousness, of what we now call a person’s vibrational levels. In present terms, a holy man was necessarily a healthy man at all levels of his being because of the peacemaking inside him that generated a state of non-duality within."

This state is where spirit and matter recognize each other and merge as one. We can call it a spiritual or alchemic wedding. This is a sublimation that happened in the nuptial chamber of the Gnostics, and it was an absolute vibrational state of the Sacred.

4) According the Essenians, how can one develop the ability to perceive this Body of Light?

There were a series of exercises designed to perceive the Body of Light and its radiations that are constantly escaping. Their practice was part of the training of therapist-students carefully selected for their abilities. However, the teachers insisted that these exercises were not enough to fully develop the ability to enter into contact—visual or tactile—with the totality of the Body of Light. Insiders knew that only an ascetic life including the mastery of thoughts and speaking, as well as a daily practice of compassion and service to others, would result in the opening of the channels of the subtle anatomy. In general, it is the purity of the soul, its long and patient journey in the school of life, that permits it. The soul gradually enters into a real relationship with the intimate, invisible, and original structure of the human being.

Reading about the Body of Light is not an end in itself but rather the logical consequence of a lifestyle requiring a constant transcendence and aiming to achieve freedom of consciousness.

Daniel Meurois and Marie Johanne C-Meurois

Translated by Isabelle Laak

Ref: The Great Book of Essenian & Egyptian Therapies available in Amazon